Friendly Blog

When Friendly Fables first started performing in elementary schools, the focus was on entertaining and engaging with primary students in kindergarten to grade three. These kids seemed to connect well with our stories and eventually, with our silly songs, but we soon realized that these connections could be built throughout the school. After all, a love of reading doesn’t end after grade three!

When a teacher asked us to present to her grade five class (Thanks Cristina!), we said yes - but that meant developing something that would excite older students. After all, we didn’t want to be booed out of school by a bunch of tweens! (Just kidding, tweens, we love you guys.) But truly, a grade five or six student isn’t going to respond to the same performance as a kindergarten child would, so we had some work to do. Fortunately, inspiration struck: creative writing! This idea led to the introduction of our Creative Writing Workshops, where we challenged kids to write anything that they felt moved to create - a story, a poem, a play, or even a rap song!

And boom - it happened. Kids of all ages were writing raps with us, and they were AMAZING!

In recent weeks, we decided to add to the challenge...but this time, there was a big prize involved (and a great cause). Starting with my friends at St. Sylvester Catholic School, we’ve asked kids to write a rap verse about the problem of bullying. Each teacher was asked to present a “winning” rap from the class, and that child was given a copy of our wildly popular Farts book (or Dino Rap for younger grades;). Then, all of the participating classes submitted their class’ winning rap, and the principals from each school will pick a school-wide winner. This winner will be going on to challenge other schools to win the grand prize: their track being recorded for our next Friendly Fables Rap-A-Long Album!

These anti-bullying raps (and non-rap songs, in some cases for Kindergartens and Grade 1’s) have been incredible! We’re not just judging musical talent, in this case - we’re thinking about the lyrics, the message and the effort put into each song. Entries can be individual or in groups of multiple kids (which is often more comfortable and makes sure everyone is included). Approximately 30 schools are scheduled to participate - wow!!! That’s a LOT of amazing anti-bully raps to choose from!

The grand prize winner will be chosen by local rap artist Peter Jackson, producer Mitch Dos Santos and Friendly Fables author Alexis Alexander. All proceeds from the song will be donated to an anti-bullying charity of the winning school’s choice.

This contest has been the cherry on top of an already-amazing year for us, and we’re thrilled that kids are feeling inspired to read and write. After visiting so many schools and seeing these inspired students in action, we wanted to harness that into something good while having some fun. We hope you’ll join us!

If you’d like us to bring the rap contest to your school please click here.

In the meantime, have a listen to the awesome anti-bullying rap challenge beat!

When Friendly Fables first started performing in elementary schools, the focus was on entertaining and engaging with primary students in kindergarten to grade three. These kids seemed to connect well with our stories and eventually, with our silly songs, but we soon realized that these connections could be built throughout the school. After all, a love of reading doesn’t end after grade three!

When a teacher asked us to present to her grade five class (Thanks Cristina!), we said yes - but that meant developing something that would excite older students. After all, we didn’t want to be booed out of school by a bunch of tweens! (Just kidding, tweens, we love you guys.) But truly, a grade five or six student isn’t going to respond to the same performance as a kindergarten child would, so we had some work to do. Fortunately, inspiration struck: creative writing! This idea led to the introduction of our Creative Writing Workshops, where we challenged kids to write anything that they felt moved to create - a story, a poem, a play, or even a rap song!

And boom - it happened. Kids of all ages were writing raps with us, and they were AMAZING!

In recent weeks, we decided to add to the challenge...but this time, there was a big prize involved (and a great cause). Starting with my friends at St. Sylvester Catholic School, we’ve asked kids to write a rap verse about the problem of bullying. Each teacher was asked to present a “winning” rap from the class, and that child was given a copy of our wildly popular Farts book (or Dino Rap for younger grades;). Then, all of the participating classes submitted their class’ winning rap, and the principals from each school will pick a school-wide winner. This winner will be going on to challenge other schools to win the grand prize: their track being recorded for our next Friendly Fables Rap-A-Long Album!

These anti-bullying raps (and non-rap songs, in some cases for Kindergartens and Grade 1’s) have been incredible! We’re not just judging musical talent, in this case - we’re thinking about the lyrics, the message and the effort put into each song. Entries can be individual or in groups of multiple kids (which is often more comfortable and makes sure everyone is included). Approximately 30 schools are scheduled to participate - wow!!! That’s a LOT of amazing anti-bully raps to choose from!

The grand prize winner will be chosen by local rap artist Peter Jackson, producer Mitch Dos Santos and Friendly Fables author Alexis Alexander. All proceeds from the song will be donated to an anti-bullying charity of the winning school’s choice.

This contest has been the cherry on top of an already-amazing year for us, and we’re thrilled that kids are feeling inspired to read and write. After visiting so many schools and seeing these inspired students in action, we wanted to harness that into something good while having some fun. We hope you’ll join us!

If you’d like us to bring the rap contest to your school please click here.

In the meantime, have a listen to the awesome anti-bullying rap challenge beat!